The Book of Malevolence
by Catapily
Summary: When the Book of Malevolence is opened, dark powers seep through. Those dark powers are the Shadows, summoned with a will to destroy the world. A team of a squishy hero, a masked knight, a girl with a bow, and a musical genius must team up to stop the incoming legion... Cowritten with Dewott17.
1. Prologue

**A/N: New story I typed up with my friend, Dewott17. Since Dewott thinks the first version was too dark, I might rewrite t** **his in the future. This chapter is written by yours truly, Catapily. This is the third time I'm posting this, since the first two times everything turned into coding...**

 **This message is Dewott17 certified.**

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Prologue

The library was one place that most residents in Castle Koopa wouldn't want to go. Sure, it was old and dusty, and most weren't interested in reading, and it also had creepy helmets that stare into your soul, but there are other reasons. These reasons vary between different individuals, but this is the main reason.

The Book of Malevolence. What is it, you ask? The twin book of the Dark Prognosticus. Written by the same author, the Malevolence Book holds a dark, dimensional power able to warp the most powerful of evil spirits, alive or dead, to the reader's location. Unlike the Dark Prognosticus, the Malevolence Books does not grant the reader dark powers, but rather tracks the reader and slowly guides the villainous creatures towards the reader, stopping the reader on doing anything considered his or her normal lifestyle, and fighting the dark spirits. They would keep the reader alive, but may traumatized then for awhile. Some say Iggy had already encountered the Shadows, a name for the evil spirits.

Everyone in the castle at least knows that much. Ludwig, however would know much more when he stumbled about the book that was merely a rumour according to the residents of the castle...

Which is just about now. Ludwig opened the door to the library, looking behind him to make sure none of his siblings were following him. He wanted to escape the carnage that was Larry challenging everyone at Wii sports. He walked to the end of the library, looking for a book that he wanted to read. As he looked up at the shelf, he saw a couple of books that had previously read, and one that seemed quite interesting, titled "Dark Truth Lies in the Soul," and pulled it out of its shelf. Although, the moment he touched the book, he felt something dark. He brushed it off as the darkness of this library. After all, it was only him, Iggy and Kamek that often came in here, and Iggy would often scare his younger siblings off unintentionally.

"Intersting..." Ludwig muttered, as he scanned the front and back pages of the book. The front looked like a diary, being brown and had a bookmark sticking out of it. The back was entirely different. It looked burnt, but in places that weren't burnt, it was still pitch black, and the edges were lined in purple. He opened it and started reading.

 _"Hello. Where the Book of Malevolence goes, this diary may follow. I am the author of this book, the Book of Malevolence, and the Dark Prognosticus. The Book of Malevolence is my art, magic is my talent, and the Shadows shall follow you,"_ Ludwig wanted to close the book, but his hands stayed in place. _"But, since those words have entered your mind, this endless curse of dark magic shall continue. My book shall gather and send all of the most devilish and destructive creatures of this universe and beyond, roaming with their own evil purposes. If you think that if you keep the book closed, you would avoid such horrible fate? Of course not, as this prophecy will open the book someday, and you shall be the target."_

 _"My magic is formidable, isn't it? Even the most powerful, most talented mages cannot stop me! Oh? Who am I, you ask? That is one of the truths you shall learn and hide from those closest to you... One last note, if you tell anyone about this, the Void shall open and all worlds shall end. However, some may unintentionally find their way into this chaos cycle that I so enjoy, like an ice cream cone on a hot summer day."_

"This book... Is cursed..," Ludwig finally realized, as the dark feeling that seeped into his soul finally came to be identified. Then, the whole library started shaking, some books falling from their shelves. He let the diary slip from his hands and onto the ground, causing a peculiar, purple pattern to cast itself onto the floor, and a secret trapdoor opened. He felt a strong evil emanating from beneath the trapdoor. Then, a note caught his attention, the paper laying on the stairs for who knows how long.

" _This was issued by his highness, the most evil King Morton Koopa. Any users besides the royal family shall be punished._

 _Signed,_

 _Kamella, loyal follower of King Morton Koopa."_

As Ludwig quietly walked down the stairs, eerie torches magically lighting up, he saw a pedestal at the end of the corridor. On the pedestal was a book that looked similar to the back of the diary that Ludwig had found. The front cover was a mix of dark purple and navy blue, ominous black on the sides, with a purple diamond and rectangle in the middle. The inside of the diamond was coloured red, with some triangles at the top, and a blue circle topped with an oval shaped obsidian stone. He decided to bring the book up for studying. When he reached the top of the stairs, he heard the jumbling of the lock. Ludwig ducked behind a bookshelf just as Larry walked in, holding something that looked like a bobby pin.

"I know he's somewhere in here..," Larry muttered, as the Koopaling looked around bookshelves, and Ludwig slowly creeping away from him, he went to the trapdoor and quickly stepped into the darkness, looking as Larry rounded the corner. "BOO- Aghhhh!"

Larry tripped over a stack of books, trying to scare what he thought was Ludwig, causing the books to tumble down the stairs. One of the books hit Ludwig in the face, causing him to drop the Book of Malevolence.

"No! Larry! What were you thinking?!" Ludwig cried, as the book lay open, words scribbled on the two pages visible.

 _"My curse has begun."_

"What? What did I do?" Larry asked. Purple-black smoke started spewing out of the book, causing Larry to run off with a frightened scream. Out of the book, he saw the shadows of the Shadows. Then, as all the smoke subsided, he hid the book in his own research shelf and heard a thump. He walked over to where he heard the thump. There, he saw two bodies laying on the floor.

The first was a pink puffball, laying face down on the floor, with red feet. Nothing very special. The second, however, was much more interesting. It was another puffball, coloured navy blue, with bat wings and a mask, purple feet and gloves. The second, Ludwig noted, looked like he was a seasoned warrior. Then a groan came, presumably from the older bat-winged puffball. He looked around, confused, then pulled the pink puffball up, waking him up with a jolt.

Are these some of the Shadows?

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 **A/N: The Book of Malevolence summons enemies from previous Mario and Kirby games, who are sent with the will to destroy the world, kinda. Try guessing who they are. There's five of them, and try guessing the author of the Book of Malevolence and the Dark Prognosticus...**


	2. Chapter 1: Shadow Kirby Showdown

**A/N: Now we are getting into the story! Chapter one is written by Dewott17, but somehow he isn't able to post anything. So it's staying here for now. This may be a bit OOC, since this is Dewott's first time writing a chapter without my help (save for grammar and punctuation protocols) so yea. I did add a bit of stuff so it'd make more sense. Then again, we're both new writers, so expect this whole story to be a bit OOC...**

 **Fun fact: originally, Larry, Lemmy and Iggy were also going to be part of the main group until we couldn't find enough Shadowy villains that are not Cackletta and Antasma because I barely know anything and Dewott barely knows anything about Cackletta, so we just scrapped all five of them. And no, we weren't gonna add Shadow from Sonic because then we'd probably add Sonic and Silver and need to find another Shadow character. Plus, isn't Shadow an anti-hero and not just a villain?**

 **Also, his chapter (and all chapters until the epilogue) will be in Ludwig's POV.**

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 _Chapter One: Shadow Kirby Showdown_

What is that, a pink puff ball and bat?

"Hi... Um, who are you?" I asked.

"Poyo," the puffball replied.

"Hi Poyo?" I said with uncertainty. Poyo... What kind of a name is that?

"No, his name isn't Poyo you imbecile," the bat angrily answered. Harsh.

"Then what is it?" I ask curiously.

"Kirby! I'm Meta Knight remember we fought in Smash Bros, wait... Never mind." He fidgeted a bit. "The important thing is that that book saved Kirby and I from the Shadows that were summoned by the Book of Malevolence. It teleports the warriors of the closest worlds. It also takes the Shadows and moves them to the same dimension," said Meta Knight mysteriously.

"How?" I ask.

"The Amazing Mirror was broken," Meta Knight replied. "It released Shadow Kirby, Dark Dedede and Dark Meta Knight, our evil counterparts. They were attacking us for domination over King Dedede's castle. Then a portal opened and sucked us and the clones with us." I nod.

"What's your name," Meta Knight mumbles after Kirby punches his arm.

"Ludwig..." I say.

"Ludwig... Are you wearing a wig?" Says Meta Knight while laughing. What? Is he being meticulously weird at words or is he really more light-hearted?

The library door swings open. Did Larry tell someone?

"Ludwig why are you talking to your self?" Someone asked in a confused voice. This someone happened to be Wendy. Out of all of us! Wendy! It would've been easier if it was Morton or someone...

"Um, Wendy these are my new inventions the Masked Bat and Poyo," I say wisely. I give a glance at the two. Apparently Meta Knight was too busy making sure Kirby wouldn't run off since he was holding him pretty tightly, so I guess he didn't see that...

"I am not you invention!" Meta Knight blurts out. "I am Meta Knight, the Star Warrior remember! And he's Kirby!"

"POYO!" Kirby says happily.

"Fine, then... Meta Knight, tell Wendy what happened," I say begrudgingly.

Meta Knight goes through a short explanation to Wendy about what happened, why they're here, and told her what the Book of Malevolence is.

"What's that!? Meta Knight it looks like a grey Kirby! "Wendy squeals. Indeed, somehow a grey colour scheme look-alike of Kirby appeared on a bookshelf, with a devilish grin.

"That's the Shadow!" Meta Knight yells.

The Shadow opens its mouth and starts suck it air like a tornado, sucking in Meta Knight's mask. This got the bat thing angry, I think. He looks a bit like Kirby, except older.

"That wretched clone stole my mask!" Meta Knight yells furiously.

"So?" I ask. It's just a mask, he could get another one later...

"LETS GO GET IT!" Meta Knight screams. Was he born with his mask or what?

We ran out of the library, until I noticed something weird outside. I looked out of a nearby window, and there was a horde of Waddle Dees, Knuckle Joes, Waddle Doos and many other sub species, if I recall correctly. Kamek is out there, probably training the force with these creatures that they have no inkling about. Then, at the end of the brawl zone, I saw Shadow Kirby fly up into the sky.

"OVER HERE!" I yell, and tell our group to exit the main doors, next to the war zone. Me and Wendy got our Clown cars and sceptres. Meta Knight pulls out a serrated, golden sword. Kirby just runs up and sucks a Waddle Doo.

"Poyo!" Kirby yells happily.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING KIRBY!" I scream as Kirby swallows the Waddle Doo.

"Just watch," Meta Knight says quietly. Then a flash of light, then Kirby has a red and yellow jester hat and wand.

"Beam!" Kirby yells.

"Why does Kirby have a wand?" Wendy asked.

"It's his Beam ability," Meta Knight replied.

Kirby then shoots a ball of energy into the clouds and makes a straight path up to the first of the many Shadows.

"Is that Shadow Kirby?" Wendy says anxiously, looking up at Shadow Kirby, standing on a cloud.

"Yes, he's been destroying Dreamland ever since the mirror incident," Meta Knight says seriously.

We fly to the ground and Shadow Kirby follows.

We watch Shadow Kirby as he sucks up everything in sight creating a arena of broken buildings around us. Luckily, he doesn't damage the castle. That would've been real trouble. Shadow Kirby taunts them by sticking out his tongue, then waving Meta Knight's mask and stuffing it in his mouth.

"You..," Meta Knight said in a low voice. "Bring it on! En guarde!"

Meta Knight charged forwards, as we followed, and did a drill run attack. Wendy hopped out of her Clown car onto the cloud and started attacking with her rings. Kirby ran back and forth, beaming his Shadow every once in awhile. I stayed up in my Clown car, blasting Shadow Kirby with my magic blasts. He sucks up my Clown car right from under my feet, and I barely land on the ground. He then spits out a purple-black star at Wendy, and dazes her. He then sucks her up...

"WENDY!" I yell, and I retreat into my shell and charge forwards into his foot, causing him to lose his balance and step on my spikes. Kirby blasts him up into the air, and Meta Knight uses his signature Shuttle Loop and blasts Shadow Kirby into oblivion. Wendy, my Clown car, and Meta Knight's mask all fall out from the sky. Kirby releases his Beam ability and sucks up all the items from the air. Including Wendy, and then spits them out safely onto the ground. We clean up the Kirby slobber, and Wendy reapplies her lipstick.

"MY MASK!" Meta Knight yells, then picks his mask up, and dries it using his wings as fans. That's one Shadow down.


	3. Chapter 2: Tomato Time Bomb

**Whoop, sorry for not updating. I was waiting for Dewott to finish up chapter four *NUDGENUDGEWINKWINK* but... There's only a few sentences, still. And it's been like forever! Also, I think I forgot to post this. No idea how, just forgot. Yeah. Also, finals. School in general. And Hetalia has got me. But don't worry, I'm finishing this with Dewott! (Just gotta not confuse Ludwig and Ludwig/Germany plus Iggy and England... Yeah...)**

 **Also, I will be putting up chapter 3 today (since that was finished waaaay long time ago) and chapter 4, if Dewott hurries up...**

 **Why there is a fast food store in the castle, I have no idea... Maybe Bowser likes fast food? Maybe Ludwig?**

 **This chapter is written by Dewott17. Happy reading!**

Chapter 2: Tomato Time Bomb

"After catching my mask and saving Wendy I think you deserve a treat, Kirby. And all of us need a break. Ludwig where's the nearest fast food restaurant," Meta Knight says, surprisingly happily. Probably happy for Kirby.

"The closest is Chain Food Chomps in the castle," I reply, a bit uncertain. Meta Knight likes fast food?

We go back to the Castle and into Chain Food Chomps where the employees are literally punching bags- er, I mean Broozers.

"Kirby, what do you want to eat?" Meta Knight asks him. Oh, it's for Kirby! That makes more sense. It's all free because our dad is the king of this castle, and the kingdom.

Kirby points at the Fire Chomp Fiesta. "So the Fire Chomp Fiesta?" I say. Kirby shakes his head.

"He wants a tomato," Meta Knight told me.

 _The darkness is creeping towards your family,_ the voice nonchalantly echoes in my head.

I look behind me and there's a Boo so I brush it off although I still keep vigilance. Yet, I already know who it is...

"One tomato please," Wendy tells the cashier.

"Poyo!" Kirby says.

The cashier gives us a shriek whilst giving us Kirby's food. I think it means, "come again."

Kirby inhales his food like a black hole would inhale the S.S Dolphin like I read in a book about plants, aliens, and space.

The chef walks, and by I whisper to him, "this normally doesn't happen..."

"Hi, how's your food today," the chef says.

The chef then presses a button and Kirby immediately throws up the tomato, glowing pink. The chef rips off his outfit and he looks like a penguin with a hammer except he's the colour of a shadow. "ITS AN EVIL PENGUIN!!!!" Wendy screeches.

"No it's not," Meta Knight retorts. "It's Shadow Dedede. I think he stole Kirby's powers."

Shadow Dedede sucks up the tomato and swallows, obtaining Kirby powers. He sucks up the nearest Boo, but he turns invisible and floats away. Tears runs down Kirby's face, well, body...

"It's ok Kirby," Wendy comforts. Try getting her to say that to Larry or Junior... Then I thought something. _There was numbers in that tomato?_ I brush it off yet again. I was delusional when I was younger, maybe it's coming back...

"...Did anyone see a timer counting down from 2 hours on the tomato?" Meta Knight asks.

"I thought was seeing things," I reply.

"Poyo," Kirby says. I think he has an idea

Kirby grabs a Bullet Bill Blaster and shakes out all the Bullet Bills, then stuffs them in his mouth.

I look at the clock. Thirty minutes has past. "We should start looking for that tomato time bomb," I say.

"Yeah, duh!" Wendy replies.

"How about we split up Wendy and Kirby go to the dungeon and Meta Knight and I will go to the top floor of you find Shadow Dedede or the tomato yell-" I get cut off.

"Yell LUDWIG SUCKS AT MAKING PLANS!!!" Wendy yells. Did she just contradict me?!

"Poyoyo!!" Kirby starts laughing. He knows English... Meta Knight just deadpans.

"Let's go," I say somewhat seriously.

Meta Knight and I go upstairs we look in the library, my room, where he asks that I have a piano, Wendy's room, the rest of my family's rooms- Roy always keeps his unlocked, same for Morton, we used a secret tunnel to get to Larry's, Wendy gave me her key earlier, Junior doesn't close the door, and Iggy and Lemmy's bunk room I accessed from my lab- even dads. Then we looked in the balcony, the gym, the green house- which only Larry, and sometimes Iggy visits, and finally the kitchen.

"LUDWIG SUCKS AT MAKING PLANS!!!" Meta Knight screams. I glare at him. "Sorry. You and Wendy are royalty and I do not want to disrespect you." How ironic. I hear Wendy and Kirby come up the elevator, as we watch Shadow Dedede look through the fridge mumbling, "turkey... Where is it..."

Me and Wendy pull out our sceptres against Shadow Dedede. "Wait," Meta Knight whispers and Kirby spits all his Bullet Bills until Dedede inhales one and yells, "Bomb Dedede!" Dedede starts throwing bombs at us. I look at the clock; 5 mins left untill the tomato explodes, if I remember correctly. _Five minutes._ Uh oh... Wait, I see what they're trying to do..."Wait, Dedede ate the tomato! It's inside him! How didn't we realize this," Wendy asks herself.

"Poyo!!" Kirby says angrily he stubs Dedede's flipper with his own foot. Dedede leaps backwards, holding his toe with his wings and throws a bomb, which Kirby throws back and Dedede explodes in a puff of smoke.

 _BOOM!_

The tomato falls on the ground and Kirby eats it. Kirby starts smoking and the ground shakes. "I think it blew up," Wendy says. Luckily, black hole puffballs can't explode... I think.

"Why was Kirby so angry?" I ask curiously.

"Kirby saw that Dedede inhaled the tomato," Meta Knight replied. Another thing that I forgot.


	4. Chapter 3: Paint Pandemonium

**Read the last chapter for why we are so, SO incredibly late. If there are any mistakes, please tell us! I wrote this AGES ago, so there's bound to be some stuff I'm not very proud of in here...**

 **This chapter is written by yours truly, Catapily! Happy reading!**

Chapter 3: Paint Pandemonium

As I watched Kirby dance around, happy with his returned powers, I thought for a bit. _We should take a break. One day, two shadows. And this time a bomb almost blew up._ I cleared my throat. "Maybe we should call it a night for today. First we fought Shadow Kirby, then we had to look for a bomb around the castle. I think we should continue tomorrow. If we keep continuing, the enemy might get a chance at spreading their legion." _These Shadows are very... Creative, and troublesome._

 _I will, too,_ the voice nonchalantly replied. I flinched a bit. _My chosen few are quite stupendous, aren't they?_

"Good idea," Meta Knight agrees. "We cannot let the Shadows defeat us, or all will be lost."

"...You and Kirby can stay in my room," I continue. I loathe the idea of having my privacy taken away, but I cannot risk having inter-dimensional aliens being found out by my other siblings. Even if I hate some of my siblings, to a degree, I wouldn't like to find them hurt by a force that wasn't supposed to be here. "Wendy, do not, and I repeat, _do not_ let anyone know of this. Understand?"

"Yeah..," she mumbles, and walked back to her room. Kirby just stood innocently. He almost looked like he was staring into my soul... I took the two to my room, luckily not running into any of my siblings, and then found two extra cots in my lab. I lay them out next to the wall, behind the area the door swings, just in case if my siblings decided to barge in. Kirby was bouncing on his cot happily. Meta Knight was apparently already getting ready for bed. Kirby opened his mouth, and I imagine he was gonna say, "poyo," but...

"Wait," I whisper, silencing Kirby, then lean against the door. I hear footsteps and... Splotching sound of liquid?

"What?" I open the door, to be met by multicoloured goop by my doorstep. I turn back into the room, and tell them, "wait here, I'll be back. Don't make very big noises, don't go beyond that door, and _do not_ touch the piano."

I levitate over the goop, recognizing it as the paint that Bowser Jr. used at Isle Delfino, one vacation that our father did not take us to... You never know what Junior could've put in the goop. Now this is what annoys me right now. Me and Bowser Junior get the two rooms off to the side, so we're on opposite sides, which really bugs me, because this paint trail is leading directly to his room. I knock- I still have to retain some sense of formality.

"Bowser Junior, it's Ludwig," I say. It sounds weird saying my own name...

"Whaddya want?" Junior grumbles, opening the door a crack. "And why are you flying?"

"I'll answer that when you tell me why you sprayed the entire hallway full of goop?!" I angrily say, and swing the door open. I do not like it when everything is a mess. I also don't like Bowser Junior very much.

"...I didn't do that!" Junior exclaims. Oh, the little liar... But maybe it's one of the Shadows...

 _It could be my legion, or your siblings getting in your way_ , the voice replied. _Your second-youngest sibling with the blue Mohawk knows about my Book of Malevolence, and soon enough, you will know the author, which is, yours truly._

I sigh. "...Just stay in your room and don't mess around, okay?"

"Why?" he asks.

"...I think Lemmy may have taken Iggy's poisonous paintball machine and then he made it gone haywire, either that or you," I lie. I would've believed that's what happened if the Shadows haven't arrived in this world.

"Mmkay," he says, then closed the door. I guess the third Shadow is Shadow Mario... But the first two also had the word "shadow" in their name... That was too easy to guess. I flew over to Wendy's room and knocked.

"Whaddya want?!" I hear her angrily yell from across her room behind the door. She never likes it when someone interrupts her when she's doing her... Stuff.

"It's me," I said. "Ludwig."

"Okay, so, I said, what do you want?!" Wendy yells- again. "I really wanna talk to my friends so get away from my door!"

"Get your Clown car and meet me by my room," I ordered. "Do not step out of your door."

"Why?! I wanted to-"

"Come take a look when your coming out," I order, then fly over to my room and open the door. I look over at Kirby, who is snoozing and somehow I has acquired a hat, and then I find Meta Knight perched by the window. I was about to ask him what he saw.

"I see a man traversing the courtyard with a paintbrush," Meta Knight said, as if he read my mind. _How?! "I believe it may be a Shadow."_

"It must be Shadow Mario," I reply. Then we hear a high-pitched scream.

"HELP ME!" We hear someone yell. Then I recognize it.

"It's Wendy!" I tell the two, then we come out of the room. Kirby almost steps into the paint, but Meta Knight pulls him back. Kirby puffs up and flies, and Meta Knight flies with his wings. We see Shadow Mario trap Wendy in a paintball net-like object, then he runs off into the corridor.

"After him!" Meta Knight commands, and we follow him. Since Kirby couldn't fly too fast, he grabbed onto Meta Knight's hand and held on. The paint trail then stopped near Kamek's room.

"He must be hiding somewhere..," Meta Knight mutters. "We must proceed quietly."

Something was off. Something felt very off in this area. I could feel it. The painting of one of my ancestors seems to stare at Kamek's door, rather than beyond it, as if something had altered its appearance. The magic felt corrupted beyond recognition, it almost didn't feel like magic. Meta Knight was about to take off into another hallway until I stopped him.

"Wait," I say, as he stopped in his tracks and walked back. This part of the hallway, beyond Kamek's room, was paint free, which is good. If there was no clues here, we could search on foot. My magic would run out if I kept on hovering for a long amount of time.

"What is it?" Meta Knight asks.

"This..," I mumble, looking above Kamek's door, "is not supposed to be here." I shot a blast of magic towards the silver plate, with words engraved, _"Kamek's room."_ Then, a shot of magic came out of where the plate was, and embedded itself in the painting. It looked like a portal, the other side a mess of colours, the edges continuously swirling.

"Poyo!" Kirby says something- I have no idea what. "Poyotal!" _Great job, captain poyobvious._

"Let's continue," Meta Knight urges us. "We must save Wendy and stop Shadow Mario!"

Kirby jumps through the portal first; then I look through the portal and see the pink puffball land face-first on the ground. Meta Knight follows, and helps him up, and I jump through last.

"I think we're in the main hall right now," I mumble. I point to the left. "If we keep going that way, we will reach the throne room." Meta Knight nods, then takes off. This time, we are aided by Wendy's constant screams for help, along with some paint splatters, which I am quite surprised that no one woke up yet...

Her screams leads us to the Throne Room, where guards stand, puzzled. There's also-

King Bowser Koopa, my father. The last person I want to see right now.

"BOWSER JUNIOR!" He yells. "Stop making the throne room dirty! Stop painting my picture! GET AWAY FROM THE THRONE!!"

Shadow Mario simply turns around and blows a raspberry towards him.

"HELP!" Wendy yells. "LUDWIG! META KNIGHT! KIRBY! SOMEONE!"

"Stop screaming," Iggy walked in. "I want to work on my new invention." Great, now they might know that Meta Knight and Kirby are here. I see Shadow Mario jump into the painting.

"See ya, suckers!" Shadow Mario sneered. The exact personality as my youngest brother. The voice doesn't really fit, though... It doesn't sound like Mario or Bowser Jr... It sounds more like a distorted cackle...

"Poyo!!" Kirby yells, then runs into the portal, me and Meta Knight following.

"Where is he?" I ask, looking around as we jumped out of a portal leading to the greenhouse. We followed the paint trail downstairs, back towards the throne room.

"He's trying to throw us off his trail!" Meta Knight shouted to us. "Conserve your energy!" Instead of heading straight towards the throne room, he took a detour, running in a circle towards the library, then jumping through a painting. This time, we ended up in me and Iggy's shared lab. Well, we have our separate ones, but sometimes we experiment together. This time, Shadow Mario shoved Wendy into a teleporter prototype that we were working on and teleported her somewhere, while he stayed behind, shooting globs of paint at us, before diving into the portal.

"Poyo!" Kirby, thinking fast, swallowed the paint globs and turned into a new form.

"That's Paint Kirby!" Meta Knight announces. We follow into the portal and end up in the hall of fame. Shadow Mario pulls down the painting of the first king, then paints all over it and hops in.

"Poyo poy!" Kirby yells, then runs in. This time, we land in a secluded hallway area near Bowser Junior's room, right beside some paint splatters. I also see him walking around the area, trying not to get dirty.

"Didn't I tell you to stay in your room?" I ask him just as he rounds the corner. Meta Knight pulls Kirby into his cape and teleports somewhere.

"I saw Shadow Mario," he tells me. "He dropped Wendy in my room, then left. Did you make a clone and you're chasing him down?"

"...yes," I say. "Do you know how to beat him? Or rather, you?" I feel stupid for asking my youngest brother this. He's going to torment me for days.

"You don't know?!" He exclaims. "Wow, the one time Mr. Egotistical Musi- never mind..." I silenced him with a glare. "Well, since I don't wanna clone of me running around and ruining all my paintings, you gotta spray him with water. And _you're_ getting him out of my skin."

I smirk. "Of course."

"Why are you smirking?"

"You still left the room. You also said he wasn't doing anything other than getting Wendy and leave. So, you aren't supposed to be out here," I smirk. It's fun when you're the older brother.

"Um... I'm gonna go tell dad!" Bowser Jr. started walking away. I immediately frown. Being the favourite out of all of my siblings, Junior's way out of most problems is telling father.

"He got one of his paintings and his throne trashed. I don't think you want to be there. And he thinks you did it."

"You suck," he mutters, and walks back into his room. Meta Knight rounds the corner with Kirby in tow. He somehow procured a few bottles of water in the short time that I was talking to Junior. He tossed one to me. There was a tiny hole in the cap. Kirby transformed into Water Kirby by swallowing one whole. I'm surprised he didn't turn into Plastic Kirby.

"These will have to do as makeshift water guns," he tells me. "Unless if you have any."

"I do have a high-pressure lava blaster," I reply. "I can change the canister to shoot water instead of lava."

"Let's hurry," Meta Knight says, and flies off into the direction of my room. I enter my laboratory and carefully replace the canister with the water bottle. I do the same for another one for Meta Knight, seeing he can't produce water in any way other than throwing water bottles from wherever he gets them. But that seems quite useless. Once I lock and secure my laboratory, I hand a blaster to Meta Knight wordlessly and head out.

"Do you have any extra bottles?" I ask him. He nods.

"We should clean up this mess as well," Meta Knight says while Kirby surfs over most of the goop. We spray any remaining goop on the wall. The paint trail suddenly ends.

"Poyo poy?" Kirby tilts his head, as if asking where we should go.

"I can feel his presence," I tell the two puffballs. "His magic is... Quite off, compared to any other kind of magic. It's horribly tainted."

 _My minions are fuelled by me,_ the voice spoke. _I could unleash that same power right now and destroy you in one fell swoop, like an acorn mercilessly devoured by a hungry squirrel._

"Let's go," Meta Knight says. I lead the way. He seems to be in the north area, but very high up, even higher than other rooms. Which means he could only be in one place.

The north tower.

The north tower is a watchtower at the north of the castle, and was once used to house Princess Peach when she was kidnapped. The other towers are the west, east, south-west and south-east towers. The other two north towers were destroyed because father thought it look like "a palace with towers all over the place," which is apparently not on his good list.

Sure enough, there's a painted "M" on the wall of the tower. Kirby spits a glob of water at it, and it activates a portal to a vortex of colours.

"Poyoyi!" Kirby jumps into the portal. I follow, and I see Meta Knight at the end. I must save Wendy!

 _Do your best. Let's see what is your best._

At the other side of the portal, we seemed to have entered another dimension. All I can feel is the corrupted vortex of magic, all I could see was the endless horizon of colours, and all I could hear was the quiet echo of the voice in my head.

 _Let's see if you can save your precious little sister. I didn't know family mattered so much to you._

 _Of course they do_ , I counter. _I am not some cruel monster. They are important._

 _Family? Important?_ The voice snickered. _You must be out of your mind. I, for one, do not care about any blood relations at all! Oh? But you are cruel. You almost killed your younger brothers when your were younger. Perhaps the time when you went by the name Kooky?_

 _Shut up,_ I say in my mind. _At least I am not as heartless as you are._

 _Oh, but I am heartless. Here you are, standing here in this endless paint dimension, waiting for any trace of Shadow Mario, who has your sister. I could just make him hide in the ends of this dimension forever, and make you and your posse die out of boredom. You are a puppet on my string, Koopa._

 _That's it._ "Hey, do you think we should look for Shadow Mario now?" I ask Meta Knight and Kirby. The duo were probably experimenting with the water, as I see some blank spots, which held holes. Probably endless pits. Note to self; spray as less water on the ground as possible.

"Poyes!" Kirby dashes off in a random direction, and me and Meta Knight follow. Kirby seems to have a good sense of direction, as he leads us right to Shadow Mario's back. I immediately squirt him with water, and Kirby starts as well. When he starts running, Meta Knight flies up and douses him from above. Eventually, he sends globs of paint back at us. I create a shield, Meta Knight dodges the globs, and Kirby is protected by the front of his wave while he is surfing.

"Argh!" Shadow Mario yells, and summons Wendy's net cage thing and uses her as a meat shield.

"You..." I dash up to him, squirt him in the face with water, then use my sceptre and cast a spell on him. He falls down on the ground.

"No fair! It's three against one!" Shadow Mario shouts. "I'll just hafta make you dirty!"

Shadow Mario erratically splats paint everywhere covering me and Kirby's eyes. Meta Knight's mask didn't protect him either, and I saw a paint splat enter his visor when a paint splat flew at astronomically fast speeds towards him.

"Poyo! Poyo poy!" Kirby spat water at us, cleaning us from the paint but also drenching us at the same time.

"Thanks..." I mutter sarcastically. Apparently Kirby finds it sincere.

"Poy!"

Shadow Mario was too busy painting Meta Knight (who has fallen down on the ground ever since a paint glob had hit him in the wing) with paint that he didn't notice Kirby creep up to him, then ram him over while surfing and washing the paint away from Meta Knight at the same time.

"Dang it!" He shouts, and was about to strike Kirby until I sprayed him with the blaster. He started running. I chased him.

"GET BACK HERE!" I shout, as he held Wendy's sack behind his back, and I tried to not spray her, surely she'd slap me later. I'd rather not get into that situation when there are evil clones running around the area. Kirby surfs from the back and Meta Knight squirts from above. Then I find a problem.

"Kirby, don't surf! Meta Knight, try not to hit the ground! We're causing holes!" True to my word, there are now endless pits of death between the paint where we sprayed (or in Kirby's case, he surfed). This caused a drawback. Now, I'm the only one spraying Shadow Mario continuously, as Kirby couldn't spray water from his mouth and catch up at the same time, and Meta Knight's aim didn't prove very reliable once Shadow Mario resorted to jumping over the gaps we made.

"GAH!" Meta Knight shouts, as a stray paint blob hit him in the face and almost sent him tumbling down an endless pit.

 _This is dragging on for way too long..._ I pull out my wand with my left hand.

"TAKE THIS!" I shout, and send a blast of magic to Shadow Mario, catching him off guard, and sending him sprawling down a hole.

"NNNOOOOOOOOooooooooooooooooo..." His scream faded away the further he fell.

"WENDY!" I shout, then I fly down the hole that Shadow Mario fell in and garbed the net, and pulled her back up. I then freed her in a stable place (meaning that there isn't ten million holes around the area).

"Thanks... But no thanks, I could've freed myself!" Wendy humphs.

"Poyo!" Kirby struck a pose.

"That's one way to kill Shadow Mario," I proclaim. "The other is to dunk him in a bathtub."

"How do we get out of here?" Meta Knight immediately asks, as the way we entered was nowhere in sight. Kirby came up with an idea.

"Poyo!" He sprays the wall (yes, there is walls of paint in the paint dimension, ask the Shadow Master how that works) and causes a hole. He tries to jump through, but almost ends up falling down an endless pit if he didn't puff up and fly back. He shook his head. "Poy..."

"Wait," I empty my canister by dumping the leftover water down a hole, the filled the canister with paint, and shot it at the hole. Sure enough, true to my logic, a portal opened.

"I NEED TO SHOWER!" Wendy exclaims, and jumps through the portal. We follow her. I hear the voice as I leave.

 _Let's see if you can play with my next toy..._


End file.
